With a few months to the 2017 General Election, Youth Agenda in partnership with Oxfam and FIDA Kenya embarked on an initiative dubbed #VoteADada to bridge the gender equality gap in the Kenya’s political leadership. We were saddened by the fact that in the 2013 general election, no woman was elected as governor or senator; 16 out of 290 women were elected into National Assembly and only 76 out of 1050 elected as members of the county assembly. This dismal uptake of women into political position, is an indicator that more needs to be done to get more women to be elected into positions of leadership, so as to attain the 2/3rd gender rule set out in the constitution. The programme targets the following counties: Turkana, Wajir, Kisii, Nakuru and Nairobi and we hope to approximately benefit 6.5 million women from this initiative.

While our joint initiative seeks to increase women participation in political leadership, Youth Agenda is keen on having more young women elected, to not only strengthen Kenya’s leadership but also to include youth in the political leadership positions.

A similar programme that we ran in 2013 through the Purple Zebra Campaign was successful at getting women recognized and elected; we strive to do even much better in 2017!

Susan Mwongera CEO, Youth Agenda

"#VoteADada "

"Surely,we can't keep scoring D+ in Political Leadership Representation. Let's aim for B+ if not a straight A. VoteADada in 2017 "

Susan Mwongera CEO, Youth Agenda

The Youth Agenda (YAA)is a premier youth organization that works towards a “Just, Equitable and Progressive society in which young people fully enjoy social, economic and political rights and opportunities". This vision is grounded upon the belief that it is possible to realize a globally competitive and prosperous nation with a high quality of life in the near future, as envisaged by Kenya’s Vision 2030. YAA has aligned its vision and mission to this national development blueprint, whose anchor is the comprehensive implementation of the new, people-driven constitution. By providing a platform to harness and nurture young people’s personal, community and national development through informed, innovative and value driven approaches since 1996, YAA has nurtured youth consciousness towards fostering positive change, good governance and value driven leadership across the republic and has registered numerous victories for young people.

As I descended down to Lodwar Town, I can tell you for a fact I had no idea what to expect. All I had to go on were the statistics from the baseline we conducted and tales from other colleagues journeys. Before you ask me what I'm going on about, let me back up and start from the beginning.